It’s still too cold out to contemplate an iced coffee, but the prospect of turning the calendar page from February to March is not unpleasant here in the frozen Midwest.  I’ll kick off this week with a tall cup of my favorite fair trade roast. 

Last week we focused on team performance and the week prior on relationships.  This week’s Leadership Caffeine offers some personal development suggestions for anyone interested in growing their influence by improving their skills in dealing with executive audiences.

How Strong is Your Executive Presence?

Many otherwise really smart people flounder when it comes time to deal with executives and board members.  They become tongue tied or worse yet, they develop a sudden urge to share everything that they ever learned about a topic and like a train barreling down the tracks, are not easily stopped.

One technical leader once described to me that every time he got in an elevator with an executive, he spontaneously blurted out something that was really stupid.  I urged him to take the stairs while we worked on correcting this unfortunate habit.

Do You Know How to Get to Carnegie Hall?  (Note: old joke…the answer is practice, practice, practice).  Why a message map is your best friend. 

Preparation, practice and experience are the best cures for improving your executive presence.  If you have advance warning of an executive encounter, craft a message map that carefully outlines your key and supporting points.  It’s a simple and powerful PR technique. 

Place the core message(s) in the middle.  Create a few spokes (3-5) that contain supporting points for your core message.  If it helps, create a spoke off of each of the supporting points with facts to back things up.  Answer all questions by reinforcing the points on your message map.

Practice delivering these points like you would practice a speech, although for heaven’s sake, make certain that you don’t sound scripted during your delivery. 

Anticipate questions and carefully frame answers:

Attempt to anticipate the key questions you might receive and frame short, fact-based answers. Some executive questions are fairly predictable, including things that focus on budget, time, improving the schedule, impact and risks.  Others are a bit more challenging, including things like “what alternative courses of action did you consider and why were they rejected?”  Work hard in thinking through the potential questions.  A good initial message map will include most of the answers.  It’s also OK to indicate a need to investigate as long as you commit to following up.

 Look the part:

Although it might seem like it does not need to be said, how you dress and how you carry and conduct yourself in front of executives says a great deal. The nonverbal cues that you are sending out are likely more powerful than the message you are verbalizing.  If your role calls for increasing amounts of face time in front of executives, it might be time to get a wardrobe makeover.  Ask for help from a fashion consultant if you need it. 

Follow your Mom’s advice: sit up or stand straight and look people in the eyes.

Executives are looking and listening for signs of confidence when you are talking.  Chances are you are either asking for something or updating on something important, and in all cases, they are assessing your competence.   Look people in the eyes when talking.  If you are using a powerpoint deck, don’t read the slides!  Stand or sit tall, listen attentively and answer clearly and sound like you believe yourself. 

Passion helps with persuasion

Don’t discount how powerful your passion about a particular topic can be in winning over an audience.  Don’t be afraid to let this passion come through in the form of enthusiasm and excitement.  Don’t overdo it, but don’t forget to bring this dimension with you and use it as a tool.  People will remember the passion more than the message.

The bottom-line for now:

Chances are the opportunities to address and interface with board members or your firm’s top executives are infrequent.  You definitely want to seize these opportunities to show your skills, intelligence and excitement for the business.  Great careers are launched when a firm’s leaders see and hear someone that is comfortable, confident and passionate about the business of the firm.  Now, about that executive small-talk problem in the elevator…